Can I use a rototiller to relandscape my yard?
Based on advice from my local garden center you really want to spray round up several times before you rototill to make sure that the crabgrass is dead and before you dig it up and start to seed (if that is part of your plan). Also, if you are trying to get rid of a slope, make sure that if will not adversely affect the drainage of your yard and cause water to pool or back up against your house. Having rototilled a large area before, my new favorite option that is easier (and more fun) is to rent a small bobcat from home depot – we just paid $250 for a one day rental and tore up our whole yard which was sloped and had tons of weeds. We leveled it in a day and then had a retaining wall built and then seeded the whole thing. My yard is pretty big and was quite a mess though so that may not be a good option for you.
If you need to get rid of the crabgrass, just use Roundup or something similar. Otherwise you’ll have a good chance of having it pop up again. Some people don’t like Roundup, but as long as you don’t drink it straight from the bottle, it poses no threats. It is a broad herbicide though, so only spray it on the stuff you want to kill. I has a yard full of some weed that wouldn’t die and that took care of it. Tilling it would have just created more plants, based on the number of roots/tubers we dug up later on.
I lived (and gardened) in Southern California for most of my adult life, so I know about gophers. Using a rototiller once won’t do much for the gopher problem, the best way is trapping. If you have any qualms about killing them, this won’t work for you, but it is the most sure. Gopher snares or traps are usually available in the garden department. You find a fresh mound and dig it out until you find the tunnel entrance. Set the trap (deep enough inside so that the dogs can’t get to it) and replace the dirt. You will have to continue doing this until all the gophers in your yard are dead and it works best if you can use several traps at several tunnel locations at once. Chances are new gophers will move into your yard next spring. If you don’t like having the traps around, you can try flooding them out with a hose deep within the tunnel. Also, as far as rototilling the grass, unfortunately it is true that rototilling will bring up new seeds as well as disperse the seeds in the grass, so
I don’t love Monsanto any more than the next guy, but used properly, RoundUp (and other commercial versions of the same chemical) are safe. Spray it at the bottom of the plant you want to kill. In a day or so it should be killing the plant already and there’s really no way to get it onto yourself at that point, provided you don’t go out and eat the plant in question. Some people will tell you that RoundUp is, well, evil, but to quote that person: “Monsanto says that their Roundup is harmless as table salt-which is actually kind of true, since salt is one of the most corrosive substances on the planet.” I’m not sure whether that statement is for or against the use of RoundUp. I wouldn’t advocate the regular use of herbicides, but if you have a big weed you need to kill, it’s a convenient way to get rid of it without worrying about it coming back. The RoundUp MSDS is
